Bereavement Support Payment calculator

Bereavement Support Payment is for a husband, wife, civil partner or cohabiting partner under State Pension age when the partner died on or after 6 April 2017. It is paid as a first payment, a single lump sum, followed by 18 monthly payments (Bereavement Support Payment Regulations 2017, regulation 3). The higher rate applies to a survivor who is pregnant or entitled to Child Benefit: £3,500 first, then £350 a month. Anyone else gets the standard rate of £2,500, then £100 a month. A claim made within 3 months of the death keeps every payment. That makes £9,800 at the higher rate and £4,300 at the standard rate. A later claim loses months, and nothing is paid for the time after State Pension age. The DWP's list of benefit rates for 2026/27 keeps the same amounts, and the money is not taxed.

Each monthly payment belongs to one month after the death, counted from the day after it, so the last one covers month 18. The GOV.UK and regulation examples the tool reproduces are listed with their sources under the checked cases.

Three things decide entitlement: the relationship at the date of death, the survivor's age that day, and the late partner's National Insurance contributions. Earnings, savings and contributions of the person claiming play no part.

• Married couples and civil partners qualify at either rate. A former spouse after a divorce does not, because the claimant must be the spouse or civil partner at the date of death.
• A cohabiting partner, meaning someone living together as if married (Pensions Act 2014, section 30), qualifies only when pregnant or entitled to Child Benefit. Since 2023 that route has been open, always at the higher rate.
• The survivor must be below pensionable age, the legal name for State Pension age, on the day of the death. They must also be ordinarily resident in the UK, with exceptions for some countries.
• The late partner must have paid Class 1 or Class 2 contributions in at least one tax year on earnings worth a set multiple of the lower earnings limit. That limit is the weekly pay at which earnings start to count for National Insurance.
• The contribution test counts as met when the death was caused by an industrial accident or a prescribed disease linked to work, whatever the record shows.

The DWP decides the contribution condition from its own records, so the calculator only takes the answer as given.

A late claim costs money. Payments can be backdated up to 3 months before the date of claim and no further, so every month of delay beyond 3 removes one monthly payment. A claim more than 12 months after the death loses the first payment as well, and one made 21 months or more after it usually brings nothing.

The number of monthly payments left after a late claim is the tool's reading of regulations 2 and 3, which pay from 3 months before the claim. GOV.UK gives only the bands. A claim at 13 months, for example, keeps 8 payments of £350, £2,800 in all.

Claims go to the DWP Bereavement Service by phone, or by post on claim form BSP1.

Nothing is paid for any period after the survivor reaches State Pension age (Pensions Act 2014, section 30). When that date falls within 18 months of the death, the monthly payments stop early. With State Pension age 10 months after the death, a higher rate claim keeps the first payment and 10 monthly payments, £7,000 in all. The other 8 are lost.

The months to enter are whole months from the death to the survivor's own pension date. The State Pension age calculator gives that date from a date of birth. The tool counts the first payment only when at least one month falls before it. That is its reading of the rules, which GOV.UK sums up as "fewer monthly payments".

Bereavement Support Payment is tax free and appears on GOV.UK's list of untaxed state benefits. It is not means tested either: earnings, savings and the survivor's other income change nothing.

Other benefits ignore it for a year from the first payment. That covers Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and the rest. After that year, whatever is left of the lump sum counts as capital when a benefit is claimed or renewed.

Survivors past pension age at the death receive no bereavement lump sum. Whether you can inherit State Pension from a spouse or civil partner depends instead on when each of you reached that age. The dividing line is 6 April 2016, when the new State Pension replaced the basic State Pension (Pensions Act 2014). Unmarried partners inherit nothing.

• Old system, pension age reached before 6 April 2016: the late spouse's National Insurance record can lift the survivor's basic State Pension to the full £184.90 a week. The survivor also inherits a share of additional pension and 50% of the graduated amount.
• New system, with a spouse who reached pension age, or died younger, before 6 April 2016: a share of additional pension and graduated amounts passes on. The spouse's qualifying years do not.
• New system, with a spouse who reached that age, or died younger, from 6 April 2016: 50% of the spouse's protected payment passes on. That is the part of a starting amount above the full new State Pension of £241.30.
• Either new system case needs a marriage or civil partnership made before 6 April 2016. Anyone married later inherits nothing.

In the old system, an own basic pension of £110.75 rises by £74.15 to £184.90. Add 50% of a late husband's £30.00 of SERPS and the survivor gets £89.15 more a week, £199.90 in total. In the new system, a protected payment of £40.00 leaves £20.00 a week, about £1,040.00 a year.

Anything inherited is paid from the survivor's own pension date, as part of the State Pension, and is taxable like the rest of it. The Pension Service handles the change once it hears of the death.

The share of additional State Pension that passes on depends on its type and, for SERPS, on the sex and birth date of the partner who died. The table applies to deaths on or after 6 October 2002 and runs from 100% down to 50% (GOV.UK).

The State Second Pension replaced SERPS for later years, and up to 50% of it can pass on. The tool uses that ceiling. Graduated Retirement Benefit, an older earnings-related scheme, passes on at 50%.

Under the old rules, a survivor's additional pension plus what is inherited cannot exceed £230.54 a week in 2026/27. The tool applies that cap only there. A late husband born on 1 June 1944 with £150.00 of SERPS leaves a 60% share. Next to an own £180.00, only £50.54 fits under the cap.

Deaths before 6 April 2017 fall under the earlier scheme, which the new payment replaced. Widowed Parent's Allowance was a weekly benefit for a survivor bringing up children. Bereavement Allowance paid older survivors without children for a limited time, and Bereavement Payment was a one-off lump sum.

Existing Widowed Parent's Allowance awards continue under their own rules and are outside this tool. The newer payment depends on the situation at the date of death, which is the situation the calculator asks about.

The results cover the state benefits only, and a few rules are simplified. These are the gaps to keep in mind.

• Workplace pension and private pension death benefits, such as lump sums and dependants' pensions, follow each scheme's rules.
• Extra State Pension from deferral, and the rules on inheriting it, are not modelled. GOV.UK gives the conditions but no single percentage.
• The basic top up in the old system counts only contributions to 5 April 2016 when the late spouse reached State Pension age from 6 April 2016. The tool does not limit it.
• Pension Credit, which is means tested, can change after a death but is not estimated.
• Northern Ireland pays Bereavement Support Payment under its own legislation with the same rates; the claim process differs.
• Widowed Parent's Allowance applies only to deaths before 6 April 2017.